Similarly, 12.53 lakh mt of potato, 5.14 lakh met of wheat and 3.36 lakh mt of onion were imported to meet the State’s demand during the year. The State had producted only 5,000 mt of wheat in that year, the Minister informed.

In a related question of Ray, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Dr Damodar Rout informed the Assembly that the number of marginal farmers is increasing by the day while the numbers of small, middle and large farmers are dwindling.

According to data furnished by Rout, the number of the farmers was increased from 43,56,000 in 2000-01 to 46,67,466 in 2010-11. The number marginal farmers, who undertake cultivation on less than a hectare of land, increased from 22.94 lakh to 33.78 lakh in 2010-11. On the other hand, the number of small farmers, who undertake cultivation on between one and two hectares of land, dwindled from 11.14 lakh in 2000-01 to 9.18 lakh in 2010-11.

Similarly, the number of partly farmers dwindled from 5.01 lakh to 3..11 lakh, middle farmers (4 to 10 hectares) from 1.45 kakh to 64,000 and large farmers (over 10 hactares) from 13,000 to 6,000 during the 10 year period from 2000-01 to 2010-11.